Iron Chef Birthday

My mom is the queen of theme parties.  THE QUEEN.  For me those themes were Hawaii, a Masquerade Ball, an International Festival and (wait for it) a Cyndi Lauper Look-Alike party . . . okay, you can stop laughing now, I rocked those fluorescent earrings!

For Evie there has been a Japan party, tea party, animal party, Aikido party, I am forgetting some.  This year was the best, most hilarious party I may have ever attended.   This year's theme was . . .

Iron Chef

My mom asked the birthday girl to choose her opponent.  She chose my dad, "Chef Larryiki."  That alone was hilarious.  My dad's idea of cooking is raw potatoes with salsa (not kidding!)  Evie chose Scott as her sous chef, I was given to Grandpa to act as his sous chef.  At this point my dad leans over and says, "You gotta' be in charge, I am totally clueless."

We were led into Kitchen Stadium and told we had 1 hour 15 minutes to produce 3 dishes.  Then the secret ingredient was revealed: Rosemary!

Our ingredient choices, the rosemary was under the red towel.

Scott and I hammed it up good yelling things like "Behind!" and "Yes Chef!"  My mom could hardly take pictures she was laughing so hard as I taught my dad to do things he never dreamed of doing, like cutting up a mango.

In the end, Evie and Scott's team made a rosemary lime soda; tomato, parmesan and rosemary salad;  beet, potato, rosemary latkes and a rosemary, whole-wheat pasta frittata.  My dad and I made a salad with pea shoots, sunflower shoots, mango, kumquat and black apple with a  rosemary syrup; soup with dandelion, potato, kale and rosemary and a rosemary/Gruyere quiche.

It was all delicious and we finished with a mega chocolate birthday cake that Evie saw in a magazine.  She baked the cake, Scott frosted and I made the decorations.  I even followed the directions, since it was Evie's birthday.

My mom was awesome as the chairwoman, we all laughed and ate delicious food.  It was a perfectly themed birthday party for my foodie girl.

Now she is 12!